It's the Relationship, Not the Release, That Will Get You the Story

It's the Relationship, Not the Release, That Will Get You the Story

A while back, I presented 20 tips for creating a quality media release - but I did you a disservice. I neglected to mention of of the biggest secrets to getting your story covered in the paper or on the TV or radio news: It's the relationship you create with the reporter, not the release, that will get you the story.

Here's the thing most people don't realize. The media needs you! They really do. Think about it - unless it's a breaking news story (usually about something dire and disaster-y) or sports, virtually all news stories are planned, written, and/or recorded ahead of time. Where do you think the reporters get their stories? From people just like you.

Now the tips listed here will certainly help you discern what might be newsworthy about your business or industry - but the reporters and editors and producers still need to hear from you to learn about your stories and events. That means you've got to contact them. But did you realize that if you're relying on a media release to do the trick for you, you're rolling the dice that YOUR release will stand out among the hundreds, if not thousands of other releases these reporters, editors, and producers receive in a day or a week.

So how can you stand out among such a crowded, crowded field?

Get to know the reporters who specialize in your industry. You do this by staying on top of the news of your industry and then making yourself a resource to those reporters. A friend of mine was a Phoenix financial planner, and a member of the Financial Planners Association of Phoenix. They circulated a memo to all the members (there were several hundred at the time) asking for planners who would be willing to make themselves available to the media when they called for expert opinions and the like. Guess how many even responded to the offer? TWO. I still can't get over that. Gifted an opportunity to become a media expert (and darling), and all of these people turned it down. Maybe it's that whole left-brain thing ... or the fact that they never learned the value of PR as a marketing tool.

Some easy ways to start building relationships with reporters:

• Read what they write/report.
• Offer feedback on their stories. This doesn't mean telling them all the reasons they're wrong - but if you can word it well, offering a new angle is a good way to make a connection. Something like, "I liked your story on brown cows, but was wondering if you've ever heard or considered ____________."
• Follow them on social media sites like twitter - and offer feedback when they post.
• Don't be afraid to pick up the phone.

Think about your most valuable relationships. I'm willing to bet they didn't start yesterday - that they took some time, energy, and effort to build. Your relationships with members of the media are no different. But if you can become that invaluable resource - without becoming a pain in the ass - they will come to rely on you as an expert, and you will start to see your stories get covered.

All of marketing is about building relationships, and PR is all about who you know, not how many releases you submit.
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For answers to your questions about writing, editing, marketing, or design e-mail Laura or visit Write |
Market | Design, where we specialize in teaching our writers to think like marketers!
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Embracing Your Potential to Earn What You’re Worth

Embracing Your Potential to Earn What You’re Worth


A new friend I met through a local Scrabble Meetup took my marketing series, Want to Charge More? Start Writing! She was interested in finding low- to no-cost ways to build her practice as a CPA who specializes in helping people deal with the IRS. The interesting thing was that halfway into the series, she said she was “really uncomfortable with all this marketing stuff.” She was reacting to what she perceived as the idea of learning to manipulate people into buying from you.

I remember having that same belief/reaction when I was choosing my major in college. Advertising interested me – but prosperity was a dirty word in our strict Catholic house because “God wants us to suffer” – so I found myself reviling the idea of helping rich companies get richer. Now, it’s what I do for a living. The big difference is that the companies I help are small, often fledgling enterprises that need all the help they can get if they are going to survive.

At a recent presentation I did on how to write effective media releases, one of the gals said she’s just not good at self-promotion. I asked her why – she claimed she didn’t know. My friend Connie Kadansky has built an entire practice around teaching people to get over the fear of prospecting and self-promotion, and she’s very, very good at it. I think it all comes down to two things. The first, I already mentioned: prosperity consciousness. We’ve got to be comfortable earning money, because isn’t that the whole goal of marketing – to find people who need our products and services? The second is the underlying reason for our discomfort earning money, which I believe has to do with our self-worth. We’ve been incorrectly taught that money is the root of all evil (the quote is actually “the love of money is the root of all evil”) – so we figure that if we’re earning what we’re actually worth, we are somehow out of integrity with “proper behavior” or “God’s law.” What an ugly, wrong thought. Contrary to what I was taught as a child, GOD WANTS US TO PROSPER!

I don’t think there’s one clear answer for getting past this antipathy toward self-promotion, prospecting, and marketing. It all has to do with changing your mindset. I can tell you what worked for me.

About number of years ago, I read a book called The Secrets of Attraction, by Sandra Anne Taylor. While it was not my first introduction to the Law of Attraction, it was perhaps the best book I’ve ever read on the subject (although I’ve not read the book version of The Secret, the movie was also very good on this subject, for both novices and semi-pros). Now the subtitle of Taylor’s book is The Universal Laws of Love, Sex, and Romance, so it did not even have anything to do with money, per se. But it was all about self-worth, and the fact that we create in our lives what we focus our energy on.

This is true in all areas, be it our love life, our weight, our homes, or our careers. So if we don’t think we deserve anything very good, that’s exactly what we create. If we walk around thinking, “I’m so broke,” or “I don't have enough clients,” or “How come nothing ever goes the way I want it to?” we inevitably create more of that.

The first step toward breaking free of these self-sabotaging – often inherent and transparent (as in, they’re so ingrained you aren’t even aware you’re thinking them) thoughts and beliefs – is to become aware of them. The second thing is to focus on what you do have – and learn to express endless gratitude for it.

I remember talking to a gal I worked with at the Arizona Diamondbacks ticket office back in 2002/03. She was a spoiled rich girl who was having a bad day. I suggested she write a list of things 10 she was grateful for. She couldn’t think of more than five. I could rattle of 100 things right now … things we often take for granted, but for which – when we stop to think about them – we can and should be profoundly grateful. I woke up today (1) in a comfy bed (2) to music on my alarm clock (3). That’s three right there. I got up and walked (4) to my indoor-plumbing toilet (5) and then grabbed my cell phone (6) to text my boyfriend (7). That’s four more right there. I took my dogs (8) for a walk outside (9) on this beautiful October morning (10) in Phoenix (11). Four more. You starting to get the idea?

If we can start appreciating all the gifts in our lives – both small and big – it’s easier to shift our focus away from what we do not have. And one of the best ways to incorporate this practice of gratitude is by keeping a gratitude journal – a place where you regularly record everything you have to be thankful for in your life.

Next up, Taylor suggests in her book the use of affirmation cards. Affirmations are statements you write in the present tense about what you want your life to look like. “I easily reach my goal weight of ___ pounds.” “I live in the quaint, comfortable home of my dreams.” “I am welcome everywhere I go.” “Opportunities greet me every day.” “I am lovable, and I reflect love to others.”

Now I’ve been hearing the affirmation recommendation for some time, but Taylor did something I’d never seen before. She honored the fact that for some people, making positive self-statements might be really hard. After all, if you’ve spent your whole life listening to others tell you why you’re unworthy, and you now embrace those negative thoughts and shower them on yourself multiple times a day, it can be very challenging to start thinking differently (i.e., positively) about yourself. So she gives you permission to start with baby steps. Start by writing, “I am ready to consider that I might be worthy of earning what I’m worth.”

Once you’ve got your cards written out, you want to read through them two or three times every day – more if you can. It might help to make several sets and keep one in your purse, one in your car, one on your night stand … all the places you might find a few free minutes.

So how did I do at this task? Really well at the first part. I not only wrote affirmation cards, but I cut out pictures I affixed to each of them. Then I laminated them and put them in a box I decorated with positive messages. And then I set the box on a shelf, where it stayed, collecting dust, for more than 5 years. I am not exaggerating. OK – I'm not saying I never used them ... but literally, if it was once or twice a month, that was about it. And they really sat on that shelf for 5 years.

 

For some reason, though, I finally decided to take the box off the shelf and give some real energy to the affirmations. I’d heard that they become even more powerful when you record yourself reading them aloud, and play the recording back. So I did that. I recorded the affirmations into my digital recorder. Then I uploaded them to my laptop – and put them on my MP3 player. I listened to them once a day when I was up, conscious, and moving around, and once at night, just as I was about to fall asleep. The time just before sleep is supposedly when our minds are the most receptive to the power of this type of suggestion. Now I won’t say it was due to the affirmations alone – one of the big criticisms of The Secret was its failure to mention that the word “ACTION” is a key aspect of the Law of Attraction – because I also began to take new steps and actions. But sooner than later, I had radically shifted my consciousness about money. And romance. And worthiness. And my life’s purpose.

I’m pretty sure it will work for anybody who’s willing to put in the time and energy. One of my friends adds that you can’t do it part-time, or go all in for a couple of days, and then go back to your old ways. This is very true. You’ve got to repeat these processes – the gratitudes and the affirmations – until they become a habit, your new way of doing things. Don’t be surprised or judge yourself if occasionally you find yourself backsliding – that’s human nature. Just pick up where you left off. As long as you’re staying with it, you will continue to see progress.

So what does this all have to do with marketing? Simple. You can’t market – create relationships and then talk to people about how your product or service can make their lives better – if you don’t believe in what you’re selling. And underneath it all – whether you’re selling copiers, tires, consulting, carpet cleaning, real estate, counseling, skincare products, or anything else – what you’re really selling is yourself. If you wouldn’t do business with you, why should anyone else?

Trust me on this one – you’re worthy of much more than you are allowing right now. But you can learn to attract good things if you start with baby steps and keep on building.
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For answers to your questions about writing, editing, marketing, or design e-mail Laura or visit Write |
Market | Design where we specialize in teaching our writers to think like marketers!
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How to Tie Your MANY Interests to Your Primary FOCUS

How to Tie Your MANY Interests to Your Primary FOCUS

The other night, an interesting question came up during the Blogging section of a 5-part marketing series I am teaching: How can I focus on one topic if I have a diverse range of interests?

There are a couple ways to answer that question.

The first is the realization that you MUST find some way to focus your blog, article marketing, and branding. I learned this a long time ago from branding expert extraordinaire, Peter Montoya: The best branding repels as much as it attracts. Which means we must not be afraid to niche (aka FOCUS).

We were at a weekend bootcamp in Costa Mesa and I asked Peter from the audience: “I’d rather live in my car than be bored. How can I keep from getting bored if I have to niche with one subject or type of client?”

His answer? “Get ready to live in your car.”

The point being, we will surely fail if we try to be all things to all people. And unless you’re Microsoft, the whole world is NOT your market. So stop trying to figure out how you can wield a topic as big as “everything” for your blog, article marketing, or branding. Instead, determine where your focus lies. What inspires you and drives your passion? For me, it’s relationships and communication. Everything in my business is tied to those two things.

What is your PRIMARY focus? It could be health and fitness. Finance. Sports. The arts. Computer gaming. Politics. Spirituality. Come on people … it’s a HUGE world. I’m thinking you can find one common thread to tie all those diverse interests together.

Then, once you’ve got that single thread (aka FOCUS), you can begin finding creative ways to tie your many interests back to it. For example, there’s a gal in my marketing class who is a nutritionist. But because she loves to travel – and health stories are often tied to travel and other countries – she combines her passion for both, staying on top of this trend with her twitter feed.

What about golf? Another huge market, right? But if you wrote a book about golf courses around the world, you could target your marketing to both golfers and travel buffs. Starting to get the picture?

Frankly, it’s easier if your focus has a wider berth, like golf or travel, say, than garden tools or laundry detergent. But then again, gardening (easily related to garden tools) is a HUGE topic … and everyone has to clean their clothes in some way. These subjects just might take a little more creative juice when it comes to tying many diverse interests to them. But I’m willing to bet that a creative mind with all those interests can figure out a way to keep garden tools or laundry soap topical, regardless of the season or what may or may not be happening in the news.

Moral of the story: FOCUS FIRST. Then bring your other interests into view. And whatever you do, have fun in the process!
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For answers to your questions about writing, editing, marketing, or design e-mail Laura or visit Write | Market | Design where we specialize in teaching our writers to think like marketers!
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Would you let this guy write your PR announcements?

Would you let this guy write your PR announcements?

You may have seen this ... quiz ... test ... sociological experiment ... ?

CAN YOU READ THIS?

if yuo can raed tihs, you hvae a sgtrane mnid, too. Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.


i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

Allegedly, if you can read the paragraph above, your brain is 50% faster than those who can't. What's the point? That we're resilient? That some of us have greater language skills than others? That word shape matters as much as proper spelling? Who knows?

My question is: What would you think of a client, service provider, admin assistant, or PR person for a networking organization who wrote something like this and sent it out in a professional capacity?

I will admit that, due to my chosen profession as an editor (and, I would add, inherent capacity for proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation), I tend to notice more mistakes than the average person - and, I hope, make fewer of them in my own writing. My sister calls me a snob. She thinks that if someone can understand the message, proper spelling and grammar are overrated, and those of us who spend time insisting on such are elitists who have too much time on our hands.

I disagree. I assert that although the Americn IQ is believed to be declining, the intelligent (i.e., literate?) among us still hold the vast majority of the wealth in our country. Meaning that while you may certainly get somewhere without "book learnin,'" you will likely never make it to the top ... whatever that may look like for your chosen field. Yes, it's true that proper spelling and grammar do not automatically equate with intelligence - but smart people who are poor spellers usually recognize their deficit and do something to compensate for it ... like hiring an editor or proofreader for any documents they will release for public consumption.

Enter this guy. Or at least this is what I picture the guy who wrote the following passage to look like.

Hi Shellie



I am helping with a group of small businesses put on a mixer on october 28th at 5:30pm and it will be at mcduff's 7642 w main street and would like to know if you would like to get a table? they are only $50.00 and a gift to and the money we get goes back to the community because we use it for give aways at the mixer and would like to know if you would like to do that our last mixer we had over 125 come and we are growing . the group is called the best city mixer .com our website is www.best-city.webs.com and we started this in july to help all business to grow by putting on mixers in the best city because we notice that no body was doing anything and everything was in the other city so we are trying to do what ever we can for the best city businesses


Stan

A client e-mailed this "invitation" to me because she couldn't believe someone would actually send it out. Honestly, would you accept this invitation, no matter how starved you were for a new networking group? (Only the identifying information - in blue bold - has been changed. Otherwise, this reads word for word as it went out ... and presumably was received by his mailing list.) I visited the real Web site he mentioned and, sadly, it appears that the same grammatically challenged individual puts up the Web copy, too. This is not a case of a couple mispelled words or apostrophe's used to denote plurals. This is darn near incomprehensible, it's so poorly written.

Even though we've already agreed that spelling and grammar don't equal intelligence, how does something like this ever go out without someone who's just a little bit literate reading it and making a few changes or suggestions? Whose idea was it to let this guy handle the PR materials? And what kind of image does it give you about the group he's inviting you to join?

Here's what I always tell my students and clients: All other things being equal (price, customer service, creativity, on-time delivery, etc.), the small matter of proper spelling and grammar will set you apart from all the rest. People may not know how to do it well themselves, but they sure do recognize a well-written piece when they see it. No "ain'ts." No "me and hims." No "gonnas" and "gottas" and "gettins." It has appropriate white space - no giant 677-word paragraphs. They spell YOUR name correctly. All these little details go a LONG way toward branding yourself as a true professional, regardless of your business or industry.

You don't have to spend a fortune on editing (although, the best editors do charge appropriately) to make sure your grammar, spelling, and language usage are in order. But if spelling and grammar are not your strongest suit, I urge you to get someone to look over your docs before you send them out. I promise that you'll begin to see a return on your investment almost immediately.
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For answers to your questions about writing, editing, marketing, or design e-mail Laura or visit Write | Market | Design, where we specialize in teaching our writers to think like marketers!
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Urban Dictonary makes vocab lessons fun!

Urban Dictonary makes vocab lessons fun!

OK, they're not vocab lessons in the same manner as Sr. Laurian taught me in the sixth grade at St. Agnes School - in fact, many of the words might actually make the good nun blush.

But for the most part, they're creative, funny, and interesting. And ... if a certain political party had been subscribing, they probably would not have come up with "Tea Baggers" as their protest name.

Here's today's word: CARAOKE

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For answers to your questions about writing, editing, marketing, or design e-mail Laura or visit Write | Market | Design, where we specialize in teaching our writers to think like marketers!
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Bummed out by the news? You need to read/watch anyway!

Bummed out by the news? You need to read/watch anyway!


For quite some time now, the news has been going in a weird direction. I think it all started with the live broadcast of the OJ Simpson car chase, way back in 1994. We became, as a nation, fixated on weirdness and sensationalism. Not that we weren’t fixated before; The National Enquirer was founded in 1926 and has been fertilizing our inquiring minds ever since. But with OJ and Monica Lewinsky, we began to clamor for a steady diet of the salacious, ugly news … perhaps because it made us feel better about our own lives. And boy, oh boy, is the media eager to feed our endless appetite.

I remember sometime in the late 90s, taking a cab over to my then-boyfriend’s house in Jersey City, NJ. The driver had on the news, which at that moment was a report of a little boy and his father who’d died in a fire, just weeks after the mom had been killed in an auto accident. Now this was something like 12 years ago, and I still remember it like it was yesterday. How many newscasts leave that kind of imprint?

I was later complaining to a friend about how awful it was that they’d put this on the news, and he said, “Laura, that’s not news. It’s gossip.” Oh my God – he was right! As badly as I felt for the little boy and his parents, there wasn’t anything I could do for them (other than pray). It didn’t affect my life in any significant way (other than to make me very sad). It wasn’t a public health or safety issue. It wasn’t really news – it was gossip, plain and simple.

So I immediately went on a news fast that lasted for quite some time. One gal I worked with at Lehman Brothers (yes, that Lehman Brothers) called me irresponsible for not watching and reading the news. I told her that it wasn’t like I’d taken up camp under a rock; the important stuff would filter down to me. And it always did.

Then I became a business owner. And a blogger. And an article marketer. And I began to see the utter necessity of paying attention to the news. Not that I’m advocating following every scandalous detail of David Letterman’s love life or this ridiculous Jon and Kate (no – I’ve never seen the show, but I think I’ll live). But I do suggest paying attention to the news, as it relates to your business or industry … and then commenting on it – particularly the bigger stories – as appropriate, in your blogs and articles.

So it would actually behoove certain people to pay attention to the news about Letterman’s trysts with his staffers; their (very public) affects on his marriage would be important, for example, to sex therapists and relationship experts like Deb Stelzleni and Sunil Ahuja. Who would benefit from following Jon and Kate is anyone’s guess, though…

My point is that the news is a really important way of staying in touch with topics that matter to your business or industry. Read industry-specific journals and periodicals (on- and offline), to be sure. But don’t skip over the mass media, like The New York Times, USA Today, Huffington Post, CNN, Yahoo News, and your own local daily – if you’re still fortunate enough to have one. You don’t have to read every gruesome detail, or even every story. I get the daily New York Times delivered to my e-mail inbox. It’s really just a digest of the day’s stories, so I can skim the headlines and only click on those that appeal to me. You can – and should – do the same.

Stay current and then start commenting. Agree with the writer/reporter/blogger. Disagree with the writer/reporter/blogger. Bring a new/different vantage point to the topic. And don’t be afraid to let them know.

Write your ideas, comments, and/or feedback on your own blog, post them on facebook and twitter, but also use the comment section that virtually every major news outlet has at the end of each story/report. They allow you to submit your name, e-mail address, and a link to your blog or Web site.

And, quite often, the reporter/blogger’s e-mail address is included – so be brave and drop them a line to congratulate them or suggest a new angle on their story. You may or may not hear back from them … but it sure beats the guarantee that you WON'T hear back if you never contact them. And who knows what can develop if they actually do respond?!
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For answers to your questions about writing, editing, marketing, or design e-mail Laura or visit Write | Market | Design, where we specialize in teaching our writers to think like marketers!
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How Two Teenage Skateboarders Inspired Me

How Two Teenage Skateboarders Inspired Me

As I was waiting for the Light Rail the other night, I think it was a Tuesday, across the street from the platform were two kids on skateboards. They were maybe 14 or 15, and admittedly, my first thoughts were: "Do their mothers know where they are? It's a school night – what about homework?" But then I started watching them.

And I discovered something amazing: I want to be like those skater kids!

These kids had a goal, and were singular in their determination to accomplish it. The goal was mastering a wall about 2 feet high. They would start back maybe 10 yards, push off, and gain as much speed as possible. Then they'd jump their boards up onto the wall so that they were skidding, perpendicular to the wall (kind of like the kid in the picture is on the railing). That was the easy part, though. The trick they were trying to master was jumping off the wall and landing back on their boards with both feet. It reminded me of gymnasts trying to master the perfect landing.

They tried it again and again and again. I was waiting maybe 25 minutes for the train (don't believe that "every 20 minutes" printed on all the schedules!), and I lost count of the number of times they repeated this process.

But besides the sheer determination to accomplish their goal, they cheered each other on. One came very close to a perfect landing, and the other shouted, "You got it!" When the first one finally did the perfect landing, the other came over and gave him that high five/fist bump combo. And as soon as the first one landed it, the second kid did, too. It was like watching poetry or dance or music in motion.

I'd have to guess these two boys didn't have a clue I was watching, and couldn't have cared less, had they known. But they were inspirational to me.

Seriously – how many of us have goals? Most, probably. But how many of us take the time to get together with a friend who shares that goal, and then go out and practice and practice and practice and PRACTICE until we land it, perfectly? Far fewer, I'm betting.

How would our businesses – and our lives – be different if we did? I don't know about you, but I'm taking some time this week to reevaluate my practice schedule, find a support partner, and get busy!

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For answers to your questions about writing, editing, marketing, or design e-mail Laura or visit Write |
Market | Design, where we specialize in teaching our writers to think like marketers!